1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to animal access doors of the type that enable a pet dog or cat to enter or exit a building unassisted. More particularly, the present invention relates to the structure of animal access doors and the methods of installing such animal access doors to different surfaces.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art record is replete with different types of animal access doors. The simplest animal access doors are just small openings that are cut through the door or wall of a house so that a dog or cat can enter or exit the house at will. The cut opening is typically covered by a flap that can be swung open by the pet as the pet passes through the opening. A problem associated with such swinging flap animal access doors is that they enable strange animals or wild animals access to the house. Furthermore, such swinging door access openings do little to keep out bad weather and wind. Rather, such swinging flap animal access doors rely upon their vertical orientation to keep the flap closed and the weather out. Consequently, such swinging flap animal access doors are typically applied to house doors that have some type of overhang protection to keep weather from directly bearing on the surface of the door.
To help prevent strange animals or wild animals from entering animal access doors, high-tech animal access doors have been developed. Such high-tech animal access doors only open or unlock when a specific pet approaches the animal access door. Such animal access doors contain sensors that detect a magnet or signal emitter that is carried on the collar of the pet. As the pet approaches the door, the collar on the pet is detected and the animal access door briefly opens or unlocks. Such prior art animal access doors are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,350, to Kirk, entitled Electromagnetically Controlled Cat Flap.
Since very few pets are trained to close doors, both hanging flap access doors and high tech access doors typically rely upon gravity to close the door after the animal has passed. Consequently, such animal access doors must be applied to vertical surfaces so that gravity will return the animal access door to a vertical position. However, there are many surfaces in a house that are not vertical. One such surface is an inclined cellar door. Inclined cellar doors are typically used to cover external stairways that lead directly to the cellar of a home from the outside. Inclined cellar doors are popular with many homeowners because they provide a large access port to the cellar that enables large objects, such as boilers, water heaters, pool tables and the like to be more readily moved into and out of the cellar.
Many pet owners keep their pets in their cellars. It would be highly desirable for a home to have a pet access door that leads directly from the cellar to the outside. However, conventional animal access doors cannot be applied to inclined cellar doors. If they were, they would not close and would allow weather and strange animals to enter the cellar. Furthermore, the unclosed animal access door at the top of the cellar stairwell would present a falling hazard to children and unwary animals.
A need therefore exists for a new animal access door that is adapted to be applied to an inclined surface, such as an inclined cellar door, wherein the animal access door keeps out the weather and does not present a falling hazard. This need is met by the present invention as described and claimed below.
The present invention is a system and method for applying an animal access port to an inclined surface, such as an inclined cellar door. The system includes rail elements that are applied to the inclined surface on either side of an opening that has been cut through the inclined surface. The rail elements create tracks along the sides of the opening. A dormer structure is provided. The dormer structure has walls and a top surface that spans the walls to define an interior space within the dormer structure. However, the dormer structure has no bottom surface, and is thus open at its bottom. One of the walls of the dormer structure supports a door. The dormer surface can be placed in the tracks created by the rail elements. The tracks retain the dormer structure in place over the opening in the inclined surface. The dormer structure protects the opening in the inclined surface and provides access to the opening through the door in the wall of the dormer structure.
The dormer structure can be selectively removed from the track of the rail elements. In its place, a solid plate can be positioned, using the track of the rail elements. The result is a solid cover that protects the opening in the inclined surface from any access.